Monday, May 28, 2012

Drifting and Doughnuts

As a blogger of ill-repute, I am occasionally invited to
attend sponsored PR events.Sometimes I
come back from these events wondering what on earth I was going to write
about.Other times I would come back
needing a hot shower and a cold drink to erase the memories of the limp canapés
and warm wine.But sometimes, not often
mind, I come back with the‘OhMyGodThatWasSoFrickingAwesomeIthinkMyHeadMayExplode’ feeling.The Fastest Blogger event organised by
buyagift.com that I attended last week was one of those events.

Their invite was quite simple, come down to Silverstone and
spend a day driving a Caterham 7.I am
not beyond introspection and there is a reason that I only drive a Ford Fiesta
– It’s because I’m an idiot.Put me in a
car and I want to drive it fast, hence only trusting myself with a Fiesta on
the roads – anything faster would be a disaster (with a ghetto blaster, and a
headmaster).So there was no way I was
going to turn down the opportunity to drive one of those beasts.

Upon arrival I met the Caterham team and my fellow bloggers
and we were given a safety briefing.The
instructor tended to look at me a lot whilst giving his warnings, I think he
could smell the speed-freak in me.He
then explained that they were going to teach us how to drift a car and do
doughnuts (you know, the ones policemen don’t like, the tyre smoking ones not
the glazed ones).Drifting a car
involves careful manipulation of brake, accelerator and wheel coupled with lots
of screeching, smoke and adrenaline soaked fun.

There were three cars and 17 bloggers so in between turns we
would sit down and have a bit of a natter.I had sat myself down with Miss Daisy and her daughter Megan (sorry
Wendy, I did warn you) and soaked up the sun in-between bouts of
boy-racing.There was banter, there was
laughs and occasionally there was clapping when one of us achieved a
spectacular doughnut.

Believe me, there is no better feeling in the world than
screeching sideways around a corner with your heart threatening to jump out of
chest and not getting nicked for it.We
were a mixed bunch in the driving talent department (the best line I heard was
“This is the first car I’ve ever been insured on”) but by the end of the day
all of us had improved beyond our wildest expectations.I had started the day thinking that everyone
would get all testosteroney and über-competitive, but there was a real sense of
camaraderie as we all cheered each other around the final drifting course.

If you ever find yourself going to one of these events (and
I strongly suggest you do), I can’t guarantee you the same weather – scorchio,
or the same great laughs with fellow bloggers, but I can guarantee you will
have a day you will remember for a very long time.

I want to thank the team at buyagift.com, the perfect place
to find fathers day gifts (especially if my kids are reading this).I’d also like to thank the Caterham 7 team
for letting me thrash the nuts out of their cars, even after I thought I had
broken one after a spectacular spin off the track.The only negative thing about the whole day
was having to drive my front wheel drive Fiesta home, all in the knowledge that
it couldn’t recreate the day in my local Tesco’s car park.Damn.